Ronnie Polaneczky

STAFF COLUMNIST

Ronnie Polaneczky, a journalist for 30 years, is a Metro columnist at the Daily News, where she has won numerous journalism awards for listening to the city she loves and telling its stories in ways that get to the heart of who we are. She is the 2015 winner of the Eugene C. Pulliam Journalism Fellowship for her coverage of elderly parents who are still responsible for the care of their intellectually disabled, aging children. You can watch her TEDxPhiladelphia Talk, "The Power of Deliberate Listening," at: https://youtu.be/A343tlP5iUA

According to the Washington Post, two women separately alleged that when Oreskes was a New York Times bureau chief, he subjected them to “unwanted physical contact” when they met with him to discuss job prospects. Each woman said that in lieu of a friendly “Goodbye, let’s stay in touch,” the Times bigwig shoved his tongue in her mouth.

One of the women said she confronted Oreskes two months later, telling him his behavior had been “totally inappropriate.” He allegedly responded, shocked: “I was overcome with passion. I couldn’t help myself.”

So, what, she should be flattered?

The allegations rocked NPR. The network had already formally rebuked Oreskes once, in 2015, for getting all sex-talky with a young female employee who’d met with him over dinner for career advice. Once NPR heard of Oreskes’ alleged creepiness while at the Times, it had no choice but to put him on leave while it investigated whether that icky dinner was a lone incident.

What, you think it’s unseemly to enjoy this humiliating comeuppance for Oreskes, 63, a married dad whose wife and kids must feel like vomiting right now?

Spare me.

What’s unseemly is how routinely women are subjected to workplace pawing from powerful men. And how frustrating it can be for women who complain to have little say about whether and how the perp is punished.

As local employment-rights attorney Alice Ballard noted in an Inquirer Q&A last week, when it comes to workplace harassment, “HR is not your friend. Their job is to do damage control for the company. They decide whether to take on an investigation and how that investigation is run. If you complain, you’ll do it at great personal cost, though you will benefit the women who come after you.”

A photographed page from the diary, included in the Reporter piece, reads: Today this business got scarier. Or at least less appealing. This morning when I asked Dustin what he wanted for breakfast, he said something that beat even his lows. It was worse than anything anyone has ever said to me on the street. It was so gross I couldn’t say anything. I just turned around and walked out.